Leap Of Faith
by ac135
Summary: What happens when a mysterious little girl enters Alice Academy? And... Why do people call her a monster? Natsume doesn't know why, but he knows this girl desperately needs a friend! ( No swearing, and not much romance )
1. The New Girl

**This is my first story, so please tell me how it is :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of Gakuen Alice or the ****characters, just this story**

**P.S I probably won't have most of the characters from GA show up**

It was the beginning of Fall, and it was raining outside. But that didn't stop Natsume from leaving the lunchroom to eat outside. Even if it was cold and wet, it was definitely better than being inside. For some reason, all the girls at the school were obsessed with him and Luka, his best friend. And I mean, obsessed! Seriously, they must be crazy, doing anything just to get them as their boyfriend!

"Tch, as if!" Natsume muttered.

And so, due to the crowds of fangirls swarming around them constantly, he and Luka never ate in the lunchroom. Luka had snuck into an empty classroom, but Natsume had come out here for some fresh air. Now he was sitting underneath a Sakura tree, partially keeping dry.

He was looking aimlessly through the gates that led outside, when suddenly, he caught sight of a few men chasing after….. A girl? And those were men from the Academy!

Alice Academy was more than just a normal Academy, since all it's students were all kids with special abilities called alices. Most of them had normal alices that couldn't harm anyone, so they didn't have to come to the Academy (although it was highly recommended).

But on some occasions, an alice came along that was rare, and usually dangerous, in which case special Academy agents were sent to forcefully bring them here if they didn't come willingly.

And from the looks of it, this girl was one of those cases. The men had trapped the girl in a corner between two buildings, backing her up until she had nowhere to run.

Natsume knew that she should be brought here in case she accidentally harmed someone, but he couldn't help feeling sorrow from her, as the little girl frantically tried to escape. He was too far away to see her face, but he knew she was scared from the way she moved.

"DING! DING!"

Natsume was distracted from what was going on when he heard the school bell ringing, meaning class was about to start.

He got up, but before leaving he glanced over his shoulder.

The girl was gone, and so were the men.

Back at Luka's house, the two friends were in the sitting room, although Natsume was just laying on floor.

Luka was watching Natsume, 'talking' to him. "So, what were you doing today?" No response. "What do you want for dinner?"

No response. "Natsume..?"

Finally Luka gave up, and lightly punched Natsume on the shoulder. "He..Hey! What was that for?"

Luka grinned, finally getting his friend to respond. "What do you mean? You've been totally out of it, ever since lunch!"

Sighing, Natsume sat next to Luka on the couch. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you."

Luka listened in silence as Natsume told him what happened. Once the story was finished, he looked down.

"Seriously, this stupid Academy is really getting on my nerves! How can they just take innocent little kids away from their friends and family, and force them into _that _place?"

Natsume knew what he meant by _that _place. It didn't happen often, but when students were forced to enter the Academy, they had to join a special class to train their alices so that they didn't harm anyone.

But Natsume and Luka knew what that really meant. The few students there, had to go on brutal missions, to 'protect' the Academy. Although that might be partially true, it was still incredibly hard on the students, seeing how as they were only around 14 - 16.

"Before you get all worked up, we don't even know wether or not that girl is actually coming to the Academy. For all we know, it could have been for something totally different."

Luka hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, you're right. And in any case, it's none of our business."

They didn't discuss it any further, and went to eat dinner.

Natsume lived with with Luca's family, which meant his parents and older brother.

His own parents traveled around the world for business purposes, leaving him to either go with them and his younger sister, or stay behind. Of course he stayed.

It had been four years since they left, although they visited occasionally. By now, Natsume was like a part of the family, and called Luca's parents 'Mom and Dad'.

Right now they had gone on a vacation for a few weeks, and Luca's brother was staying at a boarding school.

So as of right now, Natsume and Luca were left on their own for a few weeks.

The following week passed uneventful, and since they didn't see any sign of the little girl from before, they assumed she wasn't coming at all. That is of course, until the first day of school the next week.

Natsume was sitting next to Luca, waiting for class to start, when he heard a noise outside the class room. He motioned for Luca to follow him, and they both quietly exited the room through a back door.

As they walked down the hallway, Natsume froze, causing Luca to bump into him "Hey, what'd you do - !" Natsume immediately covered Luca's mouth with his hand. "Shhh!"

They were right in front of the headmasters office, and they could hear him talking to someone. "Whenever you're around anyone, wear your hood, to cover your face. If the students knew that a monster like _you _was here, then all my plans would be ruined!"

Natsume and Luca froze. Who could he be talking to? The headmaster wasn't known for being the nicest, but he was never this rude! But they snapped out of it when they heard footsteps coming towards the door. Not wanting to get caught eaves dropping, they hurriedly walked to their class room and took their seats.

"You have a new class mate as of today, so please welcome her warmly." Hisoka - Sensei clapped his hands together to get everyones attention, but there was no need. As soon as they heard 'new class mate', everyone turned their attention to Sensei.

The door opened, and everyone eagerly watched to see the new student. But when the door opened, everybody gasped as a little girl walked in. She was wearing a black hoody so her face was hidden, and she had on a pair of dark blue/black jeans.

Hisoka - Sensei walked over to her, and led her to the front of the room.

Natsume and Luca were both staring at her in shock.

It was the girl from before!

Not only did Natsume recognize her from when he saw her the other day, but he and Luca instinctively knew that she was the one the Headmaster had been talking to earlier, because of the hood.

Luca nudged Natsume. I'm gonna assume that's the girl you were talking about?" Natsume nodded, speechless.

He didn't have time to say anything else, as Hisoka - Sensei was talking.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" He waited for an answer, but the girl just looked up at him, although he couldn't see her face because her hair and the hood were in the way.

"Errr… Why don't you just start with your name?"

When he didn't get a response, he solemnly looked her in the eye. "Little girl, you do have a name, don't you?"

The class was silent, waiting for her answer.

She shook her head.

Silence.

"What! How can she not have a name? What kind of parents don't name their child?"

The class burst into shouts and exclamations.

"Silence!" The class turned to stare at a red faced Hisoka.

"It isn't our concern wether or not she has a name, all that matters is that she's a good student here!"

One student raised his hand, a boy. "Yes, Masahiko?"

Masahiko put his hand down. "Sensei, why is she in this class? We're all either 16 or 17 years old, but that little girl can't be more than 10! This class is way to advanced for her, and there's no one her age here."

Hisoka - Sensei hesitated before answering. Natsume noticed that he had just read a little note that the new girl had brought with her. After hearing Masahiko's question he seemed to pull out of a trance. "Er… Well, that's because…. It's complicated. This girl, she doesn't belong with kids her age."

The class wasn't very satisfied with this answer, but he pretended not to notice."Now that's all I'm saying, so let's continue with class."

he turned to the girl, who was staring out of the window. Natsume couldn't help but notice that Hisoka see

med a little wary, if not frightened of her, but he shrugged it off. Why would that guy be scared of a little girl? But then he remembered what the Headmaster had told her.

"If the students knew that a monster like _you _was here, then all my plans would be ruined!"

Suddenly, Natsume grew very curious about what was inside that note.

Luca glanced over at Natsume, who was staring at the girl.

'I wonder what he's thinking?'

"You need to find a seat before we start class. Why don't you sit over there for now?"

Everyone wondered why he was pointing to a seat in the very back row, in a corner. There were plenty of seats up closer, Natsume and Luca were the only ones who chose to sit back there.

They were worried that the girl would get mad, but she just walked to the back of the room and silently took her seat.

"Now as it's the beginning of a new semester, it is required that you all take a placement test, to see where your at in your studies.

Loud groans could be heard from around the room, and one boy was so depressed that he dropped his head on the desk and started mumbling, which one kid managed to decipher as "Just kill me now!"

Hisoka-Sensei rolled his eyes. "It's just a little test. Just do what you can, it's nothing bad!"

He asked a kid to pass out a stack of sheets.

"You all have 15 minutes to get through as much as you can. Don't worry about the questions you don't know. Now start."

There was a rustle as everyone flipped their pass over. Silence.

'What the - These questions are ridiculous!' Natsume thought to himself. 'And that 10 year old can't know any of these!'

***The End***

**Well, there it is. Please ****review, and tell me what you think, so I know if I should continue or not! :) **


	2. A Mystery To Us All

**Sorry for the wait, it's just hard for me to write too much at one time. Thanks to everyone who read my first chapter, I'll try to keep them coming. ( Okay, I'll stop interrupting you now ) :P**

Once he had done what he could on his test, Natsume looked over to where the little girl was sitting. He wasn't surprised to see that she wasn't writing - In fact, she was just staring out the window again. Is that some habit of hers?

Once the time was up, everyone brought their papers up front, and set them the teachers desk, including the girl.

Hisoka-Sensei briefly flipped through them, then set them back on the desk. Well, that's as to be expected - Only about half of you even bothered to write down your name….?!" He interrupted himself, staring in shock at one of the students tests. "Wh.. Who's is this?" He turned it so everyone could see.

Natsume and Luca stared at it in amazement, as did the rest of the class. They could see that the whole test had been answered.

There was a rustle, and everyone turned around. The little girl, 7 years younger then all the rest, raised her hand.

"That's mine", she said quietly. "You… You did excellent", he stammered.

Natsume realized that this was the first time she had spoken since she got here. Even in the Headmasters room, and when she was being chased, he couldn't recall her saying a single word.

For the rest of class, the students were left to study on their own, although Natsume and Luca both noticed that the girl ( she really needs a name )

didn't have any books to study. "That's weird. Even if she was forced to come here, she should still have school books!"

Natsume didn't reply, because he was confused too.

There was something going on here, but the only way to find out what, was to somehow read that note!

After classes were over, the students headed for the lunchroom.

Not liking the crowded room where students ate their lunch, Natsume and Luca left the building and sat under a tree outside.

"So, what do you think about that new girl? It's kind of sad that she had to come here at such a young age", Luca said.

Natsume muttered something unintelligible, but unfortunately Luca heard.

"Haha, you think she's lonely? Not to say that isn't possible, but coming from the guy with one friend, it's a little skeptical."

Natsume glared at his friend with a black aura around him, and Luca sweat dropped. "Er… Never mind. Anyways, I doubt she's lonely. I admit that she's a little mysterious, especially with that hood covering her face, but she's probably in the lunch room right now, making new friends."

Natsume hesitated, then smiled. "Yeah, you're right. There's no need to worry about her."

A week passed by, and the weather got colder, although the two boys still ate outside. But finally, they had to give up, since their food was on the brink of freezing. Shivering, Luca stood up. "Natsume, let's go inside today. At this rate, my hands will be so numb that I can't use my chopsticks!"

"Hn. Alright, but I'm not going near that freaky lunchroom. Let's eat in the classroom today."

They entered the building, but when they walked into the classroom, they were surprised to see that someone was already there!

"Ne, Natsume… Isn't that the new girl?" Natsume nodded.

She was sitting in her seat by the window, still wearing her hood.

They walked over to her, not sure wether or not she knew they were there.

Lost in thought, the girl was staring blankly out the window. Suddenly she heard a noise, and looked over to where two boys were standing next to her. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she instinctively drew back in fear.

"Wha.. What's wrong? We're not going to hurt you!" Luca looked at the little girl in confusion, but when he moved towards her, she shrank back in fear.

Natsume stopped his friend before he could say anything else.

"Luca, nows not the time. Can't you see she's frightened?"

Luca paused, then nodded. They silently walked away, and looking back, Natsume saw the girl hesitantly go back to her original position, with a wary look on her face.

He smiled to himself.

They went home once school was done, lost in their own thoughts.

Luca fell on the couch in exhaustion. "Man, it get's harder and harder to walk to school in this weather!"

Natsume sat next to him, and Luca grew serious.

"That girl….. We need to find a way to read that note, and fast! Every day, she just gets more and more mysterious! Especially since we can't see her face."

"What's more important is why the headmaster called her a monster.

What kind of a 'monster' is scared of people? I've noticed that the teachers tend to be rude to her, giving her dirty looks. But no matter what she might have done, she's still just a frightened little child, in a strange new place!"

The next morning, there was frost covering the windows, and it was so cold that Natsume and Luca were 10 minutes late, since they had to walk 2 miles.

But they weren't the only ones late.

"Where's that girl?" Luca wondered out loud.

But he didn't have to wait long, before she stumbled into the classroom, covered in frost. It wasn't to surprising that she was late, but all she was wearing was her hoody and jeans!

No one said anything, but there were two certain people who were worried about her.

They knew by now that she never ate lunch, for some reason, and chose to stay in the classroom. And so, in order to keep an eye on her, they ate in the hallway outside the classroom, then waited in there for class to start.

Fall slowly turned into Winter, with Natsume and Luca growing more and more concerned. Everyday, the girl was late, still ignoring everyone.

But they noticed that she would curl up in a ball on her bench, obviously freezing. And yet, she never said a word, or complained.

Finally, after two weeks, she was an hour late. But what really made people stare were the injuries on her body. Both her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, revealing to delicate arms covered in bandages.

**( The one that's just a strip of white cloth, wound around your arm )**

And even though her face was covered, there were clearly bandages on it.

Everyone was silent, even the teacher, as she slightly limped over to her seat, and sat down.

Natsume expected Hisoka - Sensei to ask her what happened, but to his surprise, the teacher seemed to almost glare at her!

'This is getting serious', Natsume thought to himself.

*******The End***

**Satisfaction! Remember, this story is still developing in my mind, so nows when I need input the most.**

**Anyways, please review. **

**P.S Thanks for your comments, 'Guest' and 'Kary2343'**


	3. You're a Monster

**A/N To everybody who waited patiently for me to update, I'm so sorry! I just couldn't find the time to write, my life's been pretty crazy lately. But I'm hoping my next chapter will be a quicker update, cuz I'm super excited to write this part!**

**P.S. Reading the reviews like seriously motivated me, so thank you so so so so much!**

Class went on as usual for the rest of the day.

After the last class was done, Natsume and Luca had just left the room when they heard the teacher call out "Stay here, I want to talk to you abut something!" Luca froze, thinking he was talking to them, while Natsume couldn't care less wether or not he was talking to them.

But both of them froze when they saw he was talking to the girl.

"How pathetic", he snarled, not knowing that the two boys were watching through the window on the door.

"you can't even protect that precious little town of yours, and yet you get beaten up every day, in a pitiful attempt."

The little girl didn't respond, but she couldn't leave, either, since he was blocking the door.

"Don't go thinking that because nobody knows what you are, means that you're one of them. You're a monster, you don't belong here."

Hisoka - Sensei smirked at her.

"Don't fool yourself into thinking that anyone would ever love you. Did you really think that you could actually live a normal life?"

Silence.

"No."

"What?"

"How could I think that someone would love me? Nobody has ever wanted me, and nobody ever will. They ignore me, they hate me, they betray me - You and everyone else, abuse me physically and verbally. That's how I know that no one could ever love me, want me, or even know me. Because I'm a monster."

Hisoka - Sensei lost his smirk, but the unemotional little girl just walked right past him, towards the door.

The two eavesdroppers broke out of their initial shock, and hastily left the building, before anyone saw them.

It was raining outside, but they didn't even notice.

His fist trembling in anger, Luca looked up at the sky, rain drops trickling down his face. "What's wrong with people - What's wrong with the world, that they can't even see the cries of a child. Instead of helping her, they torment her, until all that she knows is hatred, not knowing that there's kindness also in this world, and love!"

Natsume didn't say anything. What could he say? The way Sensei treated that girl was despicable, he didn't even want to know what she had been through!

Well, that wasn't necessarily true. He _did _want to know, but at the same time, he felt like she needed to tell them herself.

**- Later that week -**

"Look, it's Shizuka!" A group of girls, around 16, were standing in the hallway, by their lockers.

One of the new girls, a girl named Tora, who just entered the Academy, looked around in curiosity. "Shizuka? Who's that?"

A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes sighed, taking it upon herself to reply.

"See that girl over there?" Tora looked where she was pointing.

"You mean that little kid in the black hoody?" They nodded.

"What's a little kid like that doing in the High School Division? Is she just visiting, or something?"

The first girl, Akemi, smirked. "Nope, she's in our class." Tora let out a gasp. "In… In our class? Why!?"

Another girl answered her.

"No one really knows, but that's just another mystery about her. She only talks when need be, and that's why we gave her the nickname Shizuka, which means 'silent'. Besides, for some reason she doesn't have a name, and we're all tired of referring to her as 'that girl', or 'the little girl', and all."

The bell rang, meaning morning class was about to begin, so they headed off to the class room, and Tora pushed the girl to the back of her mind.

It was two weeks after the incident with Sensei, and Shizuka was still showing up with injuries on her body.

Natsume and Luca knew that it had something to do with protecting something, maybe that 'village'? But they didn't have enough information to make any assumptions, so all they could do is helplessly watch as she dragged herself to her seat every morning, all alone in the world, nobody caring about her.

Except for them.

The days flew by, and before they knew it, it was full out snowing, covering the ground in a pure white blanket - Stunningly beautiful, yet dangerously cold.

Shivering, Luca pulled the blankets tighter around him on his bed.

They had gotten a call yesterday, saying that school was canceled, since the weather was somewhere below zero - So cold that staying outside for more than an hour could give you pneumonia!

"Natsume, wanna' start a fire?" He heard a grunt from Natsume's bedroom next door. Taking as a yes, he slowly walked to the kitchen, with his quilt draped over his shoulders.

'_Thump'_

_That would be Natsume rolling out of bed, _he chuckled to himself.

Turning around, he saw his friend stumble out of his room, glaring at him.

"If you wanted a fire, you could just use the _matches_, instead of waking me up!"

Grinning, Luca handed him a cup of coffee. "Nah, I knew you couldn't possibly be asleep in this weather."

Using his fire alice, Natusme soon had a fire blazing in the fireplace, so they sprawled on the floor, trying to warm up.

Suddenly, Luca heard a gasp. ".. Natsume? What's wrong?"

Natsume was frozen with shock, and it took him a while to answer, as though he couldn't believe what he was saying.

"Lu..Luca. We're so stupid! Where does the new girl live? You know, 'Shizuka'?"

Luca couldn't answer.

"Think! We heard it ourselves, that nobody cares about her, or takes care of her - So who exactly would she live with, if she's completely alone? No one! Who knows where she lives, if…. If anywhere!"

Immediately, they both threw on their coats and hats and dashed out the door - 5 seconds later - "Er.. Natsume, where exactly are we looking?"

They looked at each other. "The school!"

_The headmaster's got to know where she is, _Natsume thought to himself, as they frantically ran towards the school.

Finally, out of breath, they reached the school, and ran for the headmasters office.

The headmaster jumped in surprise when two panting boys burst into his office, gasping for breath.

"Where… Is… Shizuka?" A boy with raven black hair was speaking.

Frowning, the headmaster looked up.

"If you are talking about our newest student, whose name is _not _Shizuka or anything else, then you're asking in vain. There's no reason for me to answer to two high school students like you, who have no business with her!"

'_Thud!'_

Natsume's foot banged on the desk, as he Stood over the headmaster, with a death aura behind him.

"Listen up, you pathetic excuse for a man. I don't know what your stupid plans are, but if you ever, _ever _try telling me that she's not our business…."

The headmaster gulped.

"Then you're gonna' regret being born. Now tell me where she is, before I start losing patience!"

Sweating nervously, the headmaster hastily pulled out a sheet of paper from a file folder.

"We.. Well, we're not sure exactly where she lives, but she lives somewhere around these woods, maybe even in them!"

Natsume glanced at the map, shot one last glare at the headmaster, then dragged Luca out the door.

The cold hit them like an icy blast, as they fought their way towards the woods where the girl was said to live near.

Trudging through the snow, Natsume had just one thought.

'_We have to find her, no matter what we have to find her!'_

**A/N Just wondering, does anybody know if it's possible to post pictures on like my profile or something? I really want to put up the pictures I drew of these characters, but I'm not sure how! So yeah, feel free to PM if you have an answer...**

**See you in the next chapter my lovely readers :P**


	4. Shizuka

**... No words can explain how bad I feel about taking so long. I got edited and wrote most of it, then stopped. Well, what's done is done :)  
So I thought I should explain something that I totally forgot about. You know how I write Luca instead of Ruka? Well, that's because I'm a major book follower, and it drives me nuts because like literally everyone on this site puts Ruka. So sorry about that, if you don't like it. It's just the way it is.**

**Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice is not mine at all. But you all know that.**_  
_

_Previously:_

_The cold hit them like an icy blast, as they fought their way towards the woods where the girl was said to live near._

_Trudging through the snow, Natsume had just one thought.  
_

'_We have to find her, no matter what we have to find her!'_

They ran through the snow storm, slipped on ice, and trudged through slush, desperately searching for Shizuka.

Finally, after what seemed like hours (and probably was) they made it to the woods, which were surprisingly thick with trees, but not quite a forest.

"Shizuka!"  
Luca called, listening for an answer. But none came. "Yeah, I didn't really expect one", he shrugged.

As they fought the fierce wind and snow, Natsume glanced at his friend.

'_Thank you, Luca. You didn't have to come out here, but even though neither of us know much about her, you're still just as worried about her as am_.'

After a while, they took a break. Both of them dropped to the ground, shivering from the dangerously cold weather.

"We can't stay out here for much longer", Luca concluded. Natsume grunted, to frozen to reply.  
"Natsume! We both have cell phones, why don't we split up? That way we'll cover twice as much of this place. I mean, how far into these woods could she live?" Standing up, Natsume nodded. "We've probably got about 30 minutes left, so let's hurry up."

They immediately ran off in their separate ways, with fierce determination.

_ *o0o*_

_Sparkling like crystal, icicles hung from the branches of a solitary tree, in the heart of a forest. Under the tree, there was a girl.  
__She lay on a blanket of snow, her black hair contrasting sharply with the pure white surrounding her._

'_I can't.. feel.. my body.'_

Shizuka clenched her teeth in pain. The cold was swamping her body, until it was numb. But even though she was numb, it was still painful.

'_Am I gonna die now? If so, then I beg of you, God, take me quickly. There's too much pain in me, I can't handle it!'_

She wanted desperately to cry, to let the tears represent her pain, and maybe take it away. But even in this dark moment, there was nothing.  
Finally, in a state of sheer agony, she let out a cry as the darkness filled her entire body and her eyes slowly closed.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Natsume halted, when the sound of a heart wrenching cry broke into his thoughts.  
He knew instinctively that the voice belonged to Shizuka, or whatever they called her now, and he ran desperately int he direction it came from.

_God, let her be okay... Just please let her be okay.'_

"Shizuka! Hey, Shizuka!"

Someone, whoever it was, was calling her, pulling her out of the darkness.

Her heart pounded in her ears, but she could still hear his voice, and she desperately tried to open her eyes.  
She had managed to open her eyes long enough to see a boy with anxious red eyes staring worriedly at her., although the world was spinning, so she wasn't quite sure.

_'That doesn't make sense, nobody would ever be worried about me... I must have imagined it all!'_

Well, it didn't matter anyway. The darkness of death was overwhelming her, and she fell back into a dark and dreamless sleep.

Natsume knelt beside her, frantically checking for a pulse. He had seen her open her eyes for a brief moment, but then quickly shut them again.

With frozen fingers, he yanked out his phone, and called Luca.

"_Hello?"_

"Luca, I.. I found her. Just walk towards the sun, we're under a tree in a clearing."

"_I'm on my way. How is she?"_

"Not good. She's unconscious right now, and from the looks of it she's been out here for a while."

Natsume could hear Luca's uneven breathing, as he ran as fast as he could to where they were.

He stood up, carrying the girl in his arms.  
Suddenly he realized that this was the first time that the girls hood was down, and her face showing.  
He looked down at her sleeping face, covered with dirt and scratches, and yet beautiful.

"So that's what she looks like", he though to himself.

Her hair was pitch black, and it reached down to her shoulder. Her eyes were closed so he couldn't see them, but he imagined that they were probably a dark brown, or maybe even hazel.  
He heard footsteps behind him, and when he turned around hastily he saw Luca stumbling towards him, panting.  
Wasting no time with words, they immediately headed home with all the strength they could muster, exhausted as they were.

For some reason, getting out of the woods seemed to take a lot less time then getting in.

'_It must be because we're not searching everywhere, and stopping every few minutes to call for her', _Natsume thought to himself.

When they finally collapsed at their house, Luca and Natsume were beyond the point of exhaustion.

They had been outside in frigid weather for more than 3 hours, and could barely take another step before they used the last of their strength to fall to the warm carpet in the front room.  
But they didn't have time to recuperate, and after warming up in front of the fire for 5 minutes, Luca picked up the girl, and Natsume grabbed some extra blankets as they entered a guest bedroom.

Gently, Luca placed her on the bed, and Natsume covered her in loads of blankets.  
Awkwardly they stood back, and stared at her. Luca nudged Natsume.

"So.. What do we do now? Should we try to wake her up or something?"

Natsume shrugged. "Isn't there a book or something on this?"

Luca received a murderous glare for his chuckle. "What? Even if there were a book about taking care of little girls, we definitely don't have one-That would be ridiculous! We're just a little bit unused to having a kid in our care, that's all."

Sighing, they decided to let her sleep, when she didn't wake up after they called her name. In any case, she would be warm when she woke up.

They resulted to watching TV in the sitting room, laying on the floor in front of the fire.  
Luca propped himself up on his elbows and stared absent-mindedly at the screen. "Ne, what are we gonna do when she wakes up? I mean, we can't just send her back into those wretched woods!"

Natsume rolled onto his back. "Well, why don't we ask her if she wants to stay here? Your parents are rarely here, but even when they are, I doubt they would mind at all. Anyways, she should at least stay here until we figure something out."

Luca nodded in agreement. They were both too tired to think hard about anything.

It was a few hours later when she finally started to stir, around 5:00 in the evening. they immediately hurried into the guest room when they heard the sounds of blankets being dropped on the floor.

"Look, she's waking up," Luca exclaimed in excitement.

They eagerly stood next to the bed, watching in anticipation as she slowly opened her eyes.

They found themselves staring into two crystal blue eyes.

Speechlessly, Natsume stared in shock, as the girl blinked at the two strange boys who were staring at her.

Her eyes, painfully beautiful. A pool of blue, yet clear as ice, they pierced his heart as he recalled a story that had been told to the entire school around 4 years ago.

**There's another chapter for anyone who still sticks around. Please, review.  
Oh, I almost ****forgot! I'm so glad that people over here have manners! **

**Example: Update please**

**I know, I'm weird.  
****So, just curious... Is anyone actually interested in my story - Like, is it one where you wait eagerly for the next chapter, or do you just forget about it until you see it's updated. Because since it's my story, I have no idea. Don't worry, you can be honest.  
**Thanks for reading :)


	5. Memories

**Sorry. Sorry. Sorry I'm late. But I was so glad to read the reviews! I'm not even kidding, some of you don't know how much it can brighten up someones day! Well anyways, I hope you like the chapter. It was really fun to write, and I honestly can't wait to start writing the next one! **

_Her eyes, painfully beautiful. A pool of blue, yet clear as ice, they pierced his heart as he recalled a story that had been told to the entire school around 4 years ago. _

* * *

"Listen up, kids. I know this is kinda' rushed, but the Headmaster wants to meet with the entire school for an important announcement."

Natsume usually ignored the teacher, but even he perked up when a strange man suddenly burst into the classroom, breathlessly sharing his news before immediately dashing out as suddenly as he had appeared. Probably to tell the other classes.  
He looked like one of those men who followed the headmaster around, doing his dirty work, which means that this announcement must be pretty important.

As they followed the class to the main hall, Luca and Natsume briefly discussed what the headmaster wanted to tell them.

"Maybe he's decided to change his mind about letting the Dangerous Ability class go free," Luca half heartedly suggested.

Natsume growled. "That would be the worst decision of his life. Now that I've finally gotten my freedom, there's no way I'm gonna work for that creep again!"

"I take it you're talking about Persona when you say _that creep_?"

Natsume didn't reply to Luca's comment, but the murderous look in his eyes said it all.

They met up with the other classes in a large room, with hallways connecting to it from all the other school divisions.  
This hall was largely used for meetings about large school activities like the Alice Festival, but on rare occasions the Headmaster would make an announcement. Seriously, on _rare _occasions. Like really, it had only happened like 4 times in the 6 years that Natsume had been there.

When they arrived there, the Headmaster was already stood behind a podium, looking as stern as usual.

His short brown hair was slightly graying at the end, giving Natsume the impression that he was around his mid-40's.  
Cold black eyes seemed unseeing as they glanced over the crowd of restless students gathered before him.

"Thank you all for allowing me to interrupt your schedule for this announcement, although it is most definitely in favor of your well being that you hear this."

The students shuffled their feet, nervous about what this could possibly be about that it could concern their well being.

He cleared his throat.

"Now there's no need for panic, but it's my obligation as the head of this school to warn you all of this new danger.  
Not two weeks ago, a terrible accident occurred. In a single night, an entire town was burnt to the ground. There have been countless casualties and wounded, although thankfully most escaped relatively unharmed."

Many of the students gasped out loud, while others were in total shock. The Headmaster hesitated a moment, then continued.

"There is something else to this story, something important"

"This disaster was caused by none other than an alice."

"Witnesses claim to have seen a small girl ranging from the age of 5 to 6, standing in the middle of a crumbled building. One man says he tried to rescue her when he saw that she was surrounded by blazing white fire, but soon realized that the flames had no effect on her. Instead she seemed to be utterly calm, and possibly controlling the very flames that took the lives of so many!"

He paused, letting the now terrified students gather their thoughts, until their eyes were once more upon him.

"I regret to inform you all that there have been multiple sightings of this suspicious figure since then, some cases resulting in bloodshed.  
It has become clear that this being is a monster, in the shape of a child. In other words, a rogue alice.  
As I said before you needn't panic. This school is perfectly safe, this is nothing we can't handle. But I do have one vital piece of information for you."

"This dark creature is in the form of a young girl with black hair and light blue eyes - A truly rare combination, abnormal and loathsome. Which makes our job easier. Any sightings of someone who looks like this must immediately be reported to a teacher, or anyone in charge."

With that last note, the Headmaster left the teachers to deal with the chaos that ensued, heading towards his office as though nothing had happened.

But it was _painstakingly_ obvious to Natsume that something had happened, as the rest of the day was spent listening to a bunch of horrified students state their fears on the matter, jumping at every corner, and avoiding any dark rooms.

It was time for dinner at the Nogi household, and it was clear to a certain blonde haired boy that his friend _definitely _wasn't in the mood for food. They were sitting in Natsume's room, which still had random boxes here and had just recently moved in after his family left on a trip, and was now absent mindedly going through a pile of clothing he had yet to fold.

After it became clear that glaring at a t-shirt wasn't going to get it folded, Natsume gave up trying to concentrate.

"… Natsume?"

"Yeah?"

"Umm.. I was just wondering if you were thinking about what the Headmaster said earlier - About the girl with the… Alice."

He received a slightly incredulous look from Natsume.

"I'd have to be crazy if I wasn't! This is the first time something this big has happened - Before now, the D.A could always handle it."

"It almost makes you wonder if it has something to do with why the class was disbanded," Luca murmured.

Natsume froze. What if it did? He hadn't even thought of that!

"Why…Why disband it now, right after a dangerous alice gets on the loose! After a town is totally demolished, and countless lives are lost - I hate to say it, but now is when we should be defending the school for real!"

Luca didn't reply, he just sat on the bed and stared unseeingly out the window.

Natsume waited a minute before sitting next to him on the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"….. Everything."

"More specifically?"

"I.. I don't know. The whole thing about a 6 year old girl being a monster, I guess."

Natsume let out a sigh. "You think it's wrong that a little girl is running around burning cities to the ground and scaring people out of their wits? 'Cuz I don't think you're the only one!"

"It's not wrong, it's messed up," Luca said softly.  
"You heard the way the Headmaster described her - It was like he was talking about some sort of disgusting demon, instead of a living, breathing _human _child!" He hesitated, as his voice was starting to rise in anger.

"And even… Even you didn't refer to her as a kid, you just said 'a dangerous alice'.

Shocked at this rare display of anger, Natsume was silent.

"I'm sorry."

"… Are you? Because just a minute ago, you were talking about how the school should go kill her or something!"

"Nah, I was just gonna put her in the corner for time out. Sometimes kindness can help too…. I could always try that!"

Luca snorted. "I thought you said you weren't gonna kill her?"

Natsume stared indignantly at his friend, who was trying so hard not to laugh that his cheeks were red and he was letting out some _weird _noises.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to say that I'm not nice?"

"Why would you say that? You're perfectly nice to everyone - As long as they're not a fangirl, a teacher, the Headmaster, any adult at all for that matter, or basically a human."

Natsume smirked. "So what does that make you?"

Smiling, Luca leaned back against the bed rest. "Ah… I like to think that I'm a super hero or something - I must be to have put up with you for so long!"

Luca looked up to see a pair of gleaming eyes burn holes into him.

The two friend's bickering went on for a few hours, until they both lay exhausted on the floor, panting slightly from a few wrestling matches.

* * *

And with that, their previous conversation was forgotten.

Needless to say the girl was never caught.

For the next four years, news of multiple incidents reached the ears of students, but were only spoken about in small talk or ghost stories.

But they never forgot, and stories of the blue eyed girl with black hair gradually spread across entire cities, until it became widely known that anyone who happened to be cursed with similar appearances could easily be suspects.

* * *

**So multiple people have asked where Mikan is, no doubt wondering if she'll even show up. Well if you're not open minded, then you're probably in for a surprise.**

**I think the next chapter will cover that.**

**But ****reviews help. A lot. But I won't beg.  
**

**Anyways, thank you all so much for reading this far, and everyone who reviewed. It means a lot to someone like me :)**


	6. What to Think

**Ah, it's finally done. This chapter was so much fun to write! I'm super excited to start on the next one now! For a while I had lost motivation to write and wasn't sure where the story was going, but now I've got it all laid out :)**

**So please enjoy this chapter! **

* * *

'_This dark creature is in the form of a young girl with black hair and light blue eyes'_

* * *

No matter how much you might want to deny the truth, sometimes reality is just to obvious to ignore. No doubt about it, this was the very girl who had caused so much chaos and bloodshed.

As much as Luca wanted to deny it, he was scared of her. Terrified, actually. His stomach churned at the very thought of being in the same room, yet here they were taking care of her - _saving her life!_

On the other hand, Natsume was taking all this very well. It didn't bother him at all that there was a twisted little girl in front of him, staring back at the both of them with wide eyes. After all, he had spent most of his time at the academy fighting all sorts of killers and weirdos. What _did _ bother him, however, was the fact that she wasn't talking…. She wasn't doing anything at all in fact. Just staring at them, as though she wasn't sure what to do.

That made three of them.

The open window let in a gust of wind, interrupting the awkward silence when the girl shivered violently.

Fighting against his temptation to get as far away as possible, Luca instinctively went to pick up the blanket which had previously been dropped on the floor.

Following his friends actions, Natsume immediately hurried to shut the window, grunting at the effort to slide the glass against the fierce storm.

"Who's idea was it to even open this stupid window during a freakin' storm?"

"….."

"… Don't answer that."

Natsume managed to close the window and pulled the shades closed. After thinking twice about it however, he opened them again.

They were already in a gloomy mood, and darkening the room definitely wasn't going to help.

The sinking sun was flooding the room with an orange light giving the dazzling impression of stained glass, and Natsume was taken aback by the sheer beauty of it. How long had it been since he had just relaxed and enjoyed the moment? Ah well, no time right now.

He turned around, to be faced with a most amusing situation.

Having already given the blanket to her, Luca was kneeling next to the girl, looking extremely irritated.

Thanks to the thick blanket she had stopped shivering, but had apparently decided to hide under the covers, pulling them tightly over her head. And from the look on Luca's face, it looked like she didn't want to come out.

He took a few steps towards them, then thought better of. Luca was already kneeling next to the bed, and it didn't seem like a good thing to crowd her right now.

Instead he gestured with his head for Luca to come over to him.

"So, what happened?"

"I don't even know! As soon as I covered her with the blanket, she pulled it over her head and ignored everything I said."

"Tch. The little brat. I guess there's nothing for it but to leave her alone for now."

Luca seemed a little put off by Natsume's comment.

"Are you sure we should just leave her? I know she's known as a monster, but she's still a human. I find it hard to believe she hasn't caught hypothermia or something after being out in that weather - Actually, I'm surprised she's still alive!"

Pondering it for a moment, Natsume stared out the now safely closed window.

"Well we won't know for sure until we take a look at her ourselves. Now enough chit chat, I'm taking that blanket off wether she likes it or not."

Luca sweat dropped as his friend stalked over to the bed.

It was just as Luca had said; No signs of movement were made under the blanket, and if he listened closely, Natsume could hear the softest sound of her breathing.

Sighing he grabbed ahold of the blanket and slowly pulled it back.

The girl was fast asleep.

Looking at her sleeping face, Natsume couldn't help smiling. She was curled up on her side, her hair draped across her shoulders.

Luca smiled too, having come over and seen her.

"I guess she was just tired. Like any other kid, she hid under the covers when she saw something scary."

"Us." Natsume finished. "And turns out she was so tired she fell asleep."

"I suppose we have to wait for her to wake up again."

"Yeah. I guess we do."

After closing the shades Luca headed towards the door, but Natsume stayed behind.

"I'll be out in a second, there's just something I have to do first."

Luca nodded and silently left the room.

* * *

After Luca had gone, Natsume sighed. Not sure why he had stayed, he sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the sleeping face of the girl.

"What are we gonna do with you?" Natsume whispered.

On a sudden inspiration he placed his hand on her forehead.

Just as he thought, it was seriously hot. She had a fever! And looking closely, he could tell that she was sweating, even though she had been shivering earlier.

'_Oh crap.' _

* * *

Panicking, he ran out of the room to find Luca.

Said person was sitting at the kitchen bar, eating a bowl of cereal.

"I've got bad news, Luca. She really _is _sick, with a fever or something."

Choking on his food, Luca hastily swallowed. "Goshdarnit, this is the worst possible time for us to take care of a kid here - And a sick one at that.

Natsume glared at his friend.

"Relax, I meant that she's not healthy." Luca hurriedly explained. "I might have thought she was sick at first, but I don't feel that way anymore."

Sighing, Natsume hopped onto the counter. "Yeah, I know. Sorry. It's just, I can't make myself think she's a monster. It's not impossible that there really are kids who would kill people just for fun, but from what I've seen she just doesn't seem like that kind of kid."

Luca nodded. "I agree, but I wasn't kidding when I said this is a really bad time. Mom and Dad are both gone, which means we're stuck taking care of her until they get back. Do you have any idea what to do?"

"How hard can it be? All we've got to do is give her some medicine, and she'll be fine… I think.."

"… Or maybe we could call the doctor," Luca suggested.

Natsume sighed. "Let's face it, we're total amateurs when it comes to this kind of stuff. The last time I was around a little girl was when Aoi was younger - That goes for you too, now that I think about it, since you don't have any younger siblings."

"Yeah. I guess you could say Aoi is my younger sister, though. Remember how you two would always come over here when your parents were away?"

Natsume grinned. "All I remember is how you were always crying and dragging us over to your house because you were lonely."

Luca was indignant with shock. "What are you talking about?! I never cried! And half the time you came over because _you _were lonely!"

"Alright, so what if I was lonely? We both were mostly left on our own, so it's not anything to be ashamed of."

"…. You know, you're the one who brought it up."

"Either way it didn't matter, because Aoi would always cheer us up. Always dragging us outside when we felt down, and forcing us to play until we forgot about our sadness."

"In the simple things that little kids like her do, she was like a ray of sunshine making our lives brighter."

"Do you remember that one time I was sick with the flu, and Aoi decided to make me a sandwich?"

Laughing, Natsume nodded.

"That was back when we were both 7, and Aoi was only 3. She was determined to make you better, so she snuck into the kitchen and got out everything she could think of that would go on a sandwich."

"Ugh, I can't believe you actually helped her make it!"

"Hey, I didn't know she was going to give it to you! It looked so disgusting, I never thought she'd actually make someone eat it.

Luca smirked. "Oh yeah, she made me eat it alright. Standing in front of me with a huge smile on her face, thinking she'd just done the best thing in the world… How could I refuse?"

"Alright alright, sorry for not asking her what she wanted to do with it. But in my defense, I thought it was just going to be a mud pie - certainly looked like one! Ugh, just thinking about it makes me gag. I don't even want to think about what we put in it.

Luca smirked. "Let's see. There was cinnamon, horse radish, bits of leftover macaroni, salt, chocolate, lemon juice, cabbage…. Basically every random thing you could think of into one. How did you manage to fit all that on one sandwich?"

Natsume sweated. "More importantly, how did you not throw up after eating it?"

"Oh yeah.. I guess I never told you. I only ate a few bites while she was watching me. Once she was satisfied that I liked it and left the room, I threw it out the window."

A raised eyebrow from his friend told Luca that he shouldn't have told him.

"Oh come on, how was I supposed to know that it would fall apart? I was just trying to cool it off! You did bake it in the oven, don't forget."

Another raised eyebrow.

"Fine, so maybe I went out there and kicked it too. But how was I supposed to know it would get smeared all over the yard? I was only 7!"

Natsume's eyes twitched, and a dark aura appeared over his head.

"You tossed it out the window!? What the heck! Sure it might have been the most disgusting sandwich in the world, but my little sister put all her love into that sandwich, just so that you could trash it!"

Natsume was furious.

Luca sweat dropped. "I feel kind of bad for not telling you now. Did you honestly think I ate that whole thing? I'd probably lose my sense of taste if I had."

Muttering under his breath, Natsume walked over to the fridge and grabbed the milk.

The sound of the fridge door being slammed shut made Luca jump.

"You know, you could try being a _little _less noisy when we have a sleeping person in the house!" Luca yelled at Natsume, but the latter was obviously in a bad mood and didn't respond.

Ignoring his now irritated friend, Natsume got some cheerios from the pantry. He knew there was nothing to be mad about, but he couldn't calm down. Not that it was Luca's fault - It had nothing to do with Luca, actually. For some reason, during their conversation he had started to get the feeling that he was upset, and had accidentally let it vent out while talking about the sandwich.

Luca watched in silence as Natsume filled the bowl with cereal and and poured the milk. He knew his friend well enough to know that he wouldn't get this upset over something like a sandwich.

Natsume sat next to Luca and started eating his food.

"Is it something I said?" Luca quietly asked.

Natsume turned away. "N-No… I just… I never wanted it to end!"

Luca didn't see the tears slide down Natsume's cheeks since his face was turned away, but he could hear the emotion behind his words.

"Neither of us did. It came as a surprise to all of us when she said she was going with your parents in their travels."

"I don't understand! Why? Why would she suddenly decide to go with them and leave me here? Was I not a good enough brother?"

Luca frowned. "Don't even go there! You know as well as I do that she loved you. She loved both of us, but in the end I guess she wanted to form a relationship with her parents, to get to know them."

Natsume glared at his bowl. "It just doesn't make any sense. It's their own fault we never saw them - They're the ones who always left us behind for their stupid work. Even now they only visit about twice a year! So why would she even care about them?"

"Because they're your parents. Because they're your family."

"No. You're my family. Your family is my family, and I know that Aoi felt the same way. So why did she leave her family to live with those strangers?"

The room fell silent. Luca had no answer to that, no words to heal the wounds made long ago. No matter what he said, nothing could change what had already happened.

Instead, he let Natsume get control over his anger. Now was not the time to be getting upset. They couldn't forget that there was a more serious problem on their hands.  
From what he had heard, it sounded like Natsume didn't think the girl was so bad as the rumors made her out to be, and Luca trusted his judgment.

On the other hand, there was the problem with the Headmaster. He seemed to think that the girl belonged to him or something, and Luca doubted that he actually cared about her well being, which meant that it was up to him and Natsume to take care of her - at least until she was better.

He looked at his friend. Natsume was still staring at his cereal, but his eyes had lost their previous anger.

"Ne, I don't think that bowl will ever stare back at you. So why don't you stop having a blinking contest with it?"

Natsume let out a small laugh. "Alright. Sorry about earlier. But there's no need to worry, I'm fine. Now what do you say we find out how to take care of our patient?"

Luca smiled. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

* * *

**So, did you ****like it? I'm a little upset that only two people commented on the last chapter, but I'm still thankful.  
Also, thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited. It's so nice to know that people enjoy my story, even though I'm such a bad writer!**

**Thanks for reading this far :)**


	7. Chicken Noodle Soup

**I'm dedicating this chapter to Ikumi2688!  
After reading her review, I literally started crying. It just made me so happy! So kudos to you for making me cry, in a good way :)  
**

**Oh yeah, I decided I'll reply to reviews from now on. (Not that there's that many cough* cough*)  
I'm sorry, that was mean. I love you all, so enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

It was the day after the two teens had found a girl in the woods, after desperately searching for her for hours, not even knowing anything about her. Not _needing _to know anything about her. These two young men have more compassion and care then most people their age, and they put it to good use. Not only did they save this little girls life, but they've decided to ignore the fact that she's a supposed murderer, and concentrate on the task at hand.

Right now, that task is to find out how to make chicken noodle soup.

* * *

"Argh! These stupid books don't explain anything!"

Natsume slammed the book he was reading onto the floor and let out a groan of frustration.  
The calmer of the two sighed and picked up the book again.

"Be more careful with Mom's books, Natsume. And if you bothered to read anything inside, you would know that it _does _explain something."

_Plop_

"But only if you know how to cook in the first place!"

Luca had slammed the book down again in equal frustration.

"The recipe says to chop up a chicken breast, and boil water, and mix up veggies and what not, but not a single word say how exactly to do that! Honestly, can't they come up with something a _little _more useful?"

They were laying on the floor amidst piles of cookbooks. Some were stacked up neatly, and the ones they'd already gone through were tossed around the room, lying on their sides or halfway open, probably damaging the spines.

Having no cooking experience except for simple things like sandwiches or instant Ramen noodles, Natsume and Luca were utterly hopeless in the kitchen. But despite knowing this, they knew that chicken noodle soup was good for when you're sick, and so they decided to venture into their Mom's vast array of cook books for a recipe.

Not a very good idea, despite their good intentions.

Suddenly Natsume leaped up. "Alright, this is ridiculous. We already know that reading this crap isn't gonna help us since we don't understand the first thing about cooking, so how about we just wing it?"

"Right! Let's try it," Luca agreed whole heartedly. It was already noon, and both boys were in dire need of a break.

Luca heard a snap, and turned to see Natsume bending his back in an unnatural position. "N…Natsume, er… doesn't that hurt?"

_Crack!_

"Nah, it actually feels pretty good. More than just stretching my arms, this stretches my entire body!"

Luca sweat dropped. "I think there's a better way of doing that than practically doing a back bend."

"Whatever you wanna think. I won't stop you."

"Neither will I stop you when you break your back. Couldn't care less."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Anyone passing by the house would have thought an elephant was inside. The windows were shaking and furniture animatedly flew everywhere as Natsume chased Luca around the house, trying to tackle him.

Panting, Natsume skid to a halt in the kitchen. Upon entering said room, he had suddenly remember the reason he'd even gotten up in the first place.

"Oy, Luca. Come on into the kitchen, I'm letting you off the hook for now. Did you forget too? We're supposed to be making soup a certain someone."

Luca climbed in to the house from an outdoor window.

"Stupid. How was I supposed to concentrate when you're literally breathing fire down my neck? Seriously, you blow up over the silliest things sometimes. Did you really think I wouldn't care if you broke your back?"

Natsume turned away with gleaming eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, I was only pretending to chase you. You'd know if I was mad at you for real, because you'd be burnt to a pile of ashes."

A terrifying image suddenly appeared in Luca's head, and he glanced again at Natsume, who was laughing evilly. "Natsume…. Sometimes, you can be really scary."

Natsume stopped laughing.

"It's what I was trained for. Now on a more serious note, it's about time we started preparing some food for our guest."

Still cautiously avoiding Natsume, Luca nodded and opened the fridge. "Hmmm…. I suppose we should start with some chicken and noodles, since those are the main ingredients. Why don't you look around for a big pot?

Natsume grunted in agreement and stepped back to examine the kitchen. It was a cheerful place, with a clean and cool feel to it, kind of like a garden. It had an island in the middle, which was usually used as a seat by Natsume when he was too lazy to get a chair. The pots were usually under the counter in a cabinet, so he looked there first.

No luck.

"Hey, did you happen to use that medium sized pot recently? It's the one with the stain on the outside." He called over to Luca, who was buried in the fridge.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I set it to soak next to the sink a day or two ago and forgot about it. You're gonna have to wash it. But aren't there any other pots?"

"Not in the cabinet, and I don't know where else to look."

Natsume sighed. Life was so much easier when 'Mom' and 'Dad' were home. He and Luca didn't have to worry about cooking their next meal, or cleaning the house or anything. Unfortunately, their parents got a little bored at home with just the two boys living there, and had taken to visiting a lot of different far away places frequently.

"Oh well. Now let's see…"

He immediately saw the pot next to the sink, full of water just like Luca had said. Muttering under his breath, he dumped the water into the sink and grabbed a sponge.

"Next time you use a pot, remember to actually wash it! Do you have any idea how gross this is? All the food is grimy and mushy. You should be cleaning this yourself."

Luca laughed nervously. "Sorry 'bout that. But are you almost done? I could use your help cutting up this chicken breast I found."

Natsume nodded and dried the now clean pot with a dish towel.

"Alright, I'm done. So how exactly do you cut up a chicken breast?"

"…."

"I don't know any more than you do, so why would you even ask me?"

Luca grinned. "We really are hopeless, aren't we."

"Yeah."

"Well no matter, I'm gonna figure out how to slice this stupid meat!"

* * *

Ten minutes had passed, and Natsume was watching in high humor as Luca first got out a huge butcher knife and then proceeded to attempt small chops at the chicken breast. But try as he might, all he managed to get were little slivers and jagged chunks.

"Maybe if you try sliding the knife, it'll cut smoother."

Luca shot a murderous glare at his friend, who was calmly standing a few feet behind him, calling out comments. All of which were totally useless, since he was already doing his best.

"Darn it, Natsume! If you're so good at this, why don't you come over here and show me how it's done?"

Natsume walked over with a smirk on his face.

"I'm just trying to help, since neither of us know what we're doing. But if you insist…"

_Chop!_

_Chop!_

_Chop!_

Luca stared in awe at the perfectly cubed chunks of meat that were piling up onto the cutting board.

"What the.. ! All this time you've been watching me hack away, and you never once thought to tell me that _you're an expert!"_

Natsume screwed his face at the blast of fury coming from Luca's mouth.

"Hmmm… It just comes naturally, I suppose. You know I would _never _ do something like that to my dear friend! I just instinctively knew how to cut this delicate piece of meat, instead of sawing at it like you did."

Luca was fuming, and pounded Natsume's head. "You jerk! It's just like you to get back at me for that earlier comment about your back!"

Natsume innocently continued to slice at the chicken breast, patronizingly ignoring his friend's rants.

It was hard not to laugh, but Luca was usually so calm that it was kind of refreshing to see his other side.  
Too often they were stressed out with extra work from the academy, or worrying about the house, and over all just not having fun.  
And just like Natsume had learned how to become cold and distant, Luca had learned how to remain calm in most situations until it became a part of him.  
Yeah, they could use a break from the Academy. And if this glimpse of Luca's true personality was all he could get, he would take it.

Luca was still berating Natsume, who was taking this extremely lightly.

And the best part was that he was serious. He really hadn't known how to cut the meat properly - He really had just instinctively known what to do. But Luca would never believe that, so he let him yell, occasionally throwing in the odd sarcastic reply to make things worse.

How could he have thought life was better when they didn't have to do anything? That wasn't fun, that was boring. It was true they were ignorant of a lot of things, and it was time to start learning.

When Luca had cooled off a bit, he jerked the fridge door open once more and scoured the shelves for some sort of vegetable.

At last he found a bag of long carrots, and grabbed those along with some peas from the freezer. That should be good, they were normally found in chicken noodle soup.

Placing his finds on the island counter, he got out another cutting board. Still mad at Natsume, he called out a little gruffly.

"Once you're done over there, I need you to come over here and cut up these carrots. They're the big ones that are usually cut in circular slices."

Natsume sighed. "Luca, it's not that hard once you get the hang of it. There's no need for me to do it myself. Just grab a knife-not a butcher knife-and take your time just neatly slicing the carrot."

Luca hesitantly picked up a small knife and placed it on top of one of the carrots. "Ehhh… I'm not so sure about this."

He didn't hear a response, so he reluctantly continued. Slowly he pushed down on the knife. The pressure was enough to send the knife all the way through, and it startled Luca when the knife quickly slammed onto the cutting board, making a sharp _thud_.

"Wow, that turned out surprisingly well!" Luca was please with himself for having successfully sliced one piece, but his pride quickly vanished when he realized there was a long way to go before he was done with even one carrot.

Back at the butchering side, Natsume was pleasantly enjoying himself. Not to be creepy, but there was something fun in feeling the knife slice through the soft yet firm meat. He was content to do this for a while, and so he did, but before long the meat was all gone. Looking around he saw that Luca was slowly but steadily making his way through a carrot. That's weird, they were actually making progress.

Wondering what to do next, he found himself staring at the pot. Oh yeah, they had to put everything in there and cook it.

Well to do that, they needed water. He grabbed the pot and filled it with clean water from the sink. Next, a little less sure, he dumped the chicken cubes into the water, flinching as they splashed water all over his face.

"You almost done with those veggies?"

Luca looked up and let out a sigh. "I'm done now, but it's exhausting!"

Carrying the entire cutting board, Luca dumped it's contents into the pot. "There's some peas too, but they're frozen."

"They'll probably just thaw out in the water, once it's hot enough."

Luca seemed a little skeptical, but didn't question his friend's decision. After all, it seemed like a reasonable assumption.

So Luca put the now filled pot on the burner and turned it on. "Uh, how high should we put it?"

Natsume froze. "Oh crap, I didn't think about that! Well…. Mom usually puts water on high when she wants it to boil, so maybe we could do that?"

Luca nodded and put the burner on high.

Natsume sweated. "Hey, how come you keep asking me what to do? Just because I had some luck with the chicken doesn't make me an expert!"

Grinning, Luca looked at Natsume. "Yeah, but you're older then me, and that makes it your responsibility." He sighed, smiling sweetly.

"It sure is nice to know there's someone watching out for me, who knows exactly what to do."

Natsume was speechless with shock.

Enjoying his friend's reaction, Luca continued.

"You know, pretty soon you're going to be considered an adult, which means you're going to have _loads _of responsibility on your shoulders. Not to mention that you'll be getting kicked out of the house when you're old enough to rent an apartment. Sounds kind of miserable to me, but you're the one who's on that path soonest."

To describe the look on Natsume's face would be considered nearly impossible, since there were so many different kinds of irritation on it.

"You moron! What do you take me for, an old man?! Idiot, stupid, jerk! I'm only a few months older!"

Luca was doubled over, laughing so hard he couldn't even hear him.

"Ahaha, you - you're face!" He wiped away his tears and stood up, only to fall back down as soon as he saw Natsume.

A fire appeared in Natsume palm, but Luca was laughing to hard to stop. "Pbttttt! I'm trying to stop, but I can't help it! Every time I think of your face, I crack up!"

"Well if you don't want your head to end up cracked as well, I'd suggest you stop thinking about it."

Natsume was mad.

Luca hurriedly stood up and glanced away, unsuccessfully trying to stifle his laughter.

Rolling his eyes, Natsume decided the best option was to ignore his idiot of a friend.  
It appeared that Luca was done with his teasing, and was currently stirring the soup with a ladle.  
Sighing, Natsume opened the pantry and looked around for some type of noodles.

They were both in very high moods, which meant constantly teasing one another. How had they even lasted so long as friends? Then he remembered all the good times they had with one another. Whether it was with Aoi or on their own, they always managed to find a way to stick together and have fun no matter what. That's why they were friends. Because they were there for each other.

"Mhkkk."

Natsume turned around to see Luca bent over the counter.

"Oy, Luca. Are you alright?"

"Ahahahahaha! I thought of your face again!" Luca gasped, his body shaking so hard he couldn't stand. "Oh gosh, it was too darn funny!"

Friend or no, Luca was gonna get it as soon as this stupid soup was done!

* * *

**Tadaaa!**

**So how did you like it? Do you like reading the slower chapters with just one main plot like this and the last chapter, or do you like the faster ones with less detail? Please leave a comment in reviews or PM me, it's more helpful then you can imagine.**

**Anyways, I really enjoy developing Natsume and Luca's characters. It's amazing to write out the details about why they act the way they do and whatnot! Sorry for rambling.**

**Please please please feel inclined to leave a ****review. No choice, it's just good manners to give one after all my hard work. It's just my opinion, but to me it only seems right to leave a review even if you didn't like the story. Authors don't just want to hear from people who loved their stories, they want to get the whole picture **

**Bye, I'll talk to you later. :)**


	8. To be Loved

**A/N: What's up? I feel a little tentative about this chapter, but it answers the question that everyone's been asking. **

**What question? It's kind of obvious, but just read the story to find out. **

**So yeah, enjoy this chapter, it's extra long!**

* * *

Natsume sighed impatiently, waiting for Luca to come back home. Right now Luca was at the grocery store, seeing if they carried chicken noodle soup.

Natsume had offered to go with him, but soon remembered that someone had to stay with the girl, who was still asleep. She hadn't awoken once since that time yesterday, which meant she hadn't eaten in at least 2 days. That's what started the whole venture into cooking.

It had been a long, long day, and in the end the soup was a disaster.

He flinched as he remembered their previous experiments in the kitchen, trying to make chicken noodle soup.

* * *

"_Natsume, I thought the soup was supposed to taste kind of…. Uh, like chicken broth or something. This doesn't taste like anything…."_

_Luca hastily put down the spoon he had used to test the soup. _

"_I take that back, it tastes nasty!"_

_Staring in confusion at the pot of watery soup, Natsume __tried to think what they did wrong. They had boiled the water with all the ingredients, the chicken was cooked, the peas were thawed, and the carrots were nice and soft. So why did it taste disgusting?_

"_I don't need to try it to know we can't give this to her. It'd probably make her even more sick than she already is." Natsume concluded._

_Luca ran his fingers through his hair. "This. Is. Bad. What do we do now? There's no way this is how it's supposed to taste, Mom's always tastes like chicken and salt and delicious! This tastes like water and grease."_

_Suddenly Natsume had a brilliant idea. "Salt! That's it! Maybe we just need to add salt."_

_Luca nodded eagerly. "Good idea! Let's try it."_

_He looked around the kitchen until he found their salt shaker. It was almost empty, so he got out the refill box from the pantry._

_Unscrewing the lid, he poured the contents of the box into the shaker, until it was full to the brim. After screwing the cap back on, he came back to the stove and poured the salt into the pot._

_Well, he tried to, anyways._

"_Crap, there's too much salt in here, and it's not coming out. Should I get a tooth pick and poke it through the holes?"_

"_What if you just take the lid off and pour it straight out of the shaker," Natsume suggested._

_Luca decided to go with Natsume's idea, and once more took the cap off. He had intended to just shake it a tad and get a little bit._

_He poured half a bottle of salt into the pot._

"_Gah! I accidentally dumped most of it in!" Luca gulped and almost dropped the shaker in his panic. "Now it's ruined!"_

_Natsume was somewhat calmer. "Stop jumping around. Who knows, maybe it needed all that salt."_

_Luca stared at him._

"_Alright fine, so maybe it was a little to much. But we won't know until we try it."_

_Sighing, Luca placed the salt shaker gently on the counter. _

"_Yeah, sure. Well I guess I'll go ahead and try it."_

_He picked up the spoon and dipped it into the pot. Slowly he brought it to his mouth and swallowed.  
__Immediately he started coughing and choking._

"_Luca! Drink some water!" Hurriedly Natsume grabbed a cup from the sink and filled it with water. Thrusting it at Luca, he forced him to drink it._

_Spluttering, Luca gulped it down as fast as he could._

_Once it was gone, he handed the cup back to Natsume, who was looking extremely worried._

"_Natsume, please tell me you didn't just grab this cup from the sink. Ew!"_

_Natsume grinned, sighing from relief. _

"_I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that the soup was a little too salty for you."_

_Luca winced. "Next time, it'd be nice to have a little soup with that salt."_

"_Hn. I guess we can't give it to her then. Unless she's troublesome."_

_Luca punched his friend and grabbed his coat, shuddering every once in a while. "I don't think the salts gonna be out of my system for a while. My stomach feels like it doesn't want to be inside of me anymore… I'm gonna go get some real food before you really do give her that soup."_

_Natsume gave a smirk. "You better hope she doesn't wake up before you get back!"_

* * *

So basically that's how Natsume got to be sitting in a dark room next to the sleeping girl, waiting impatiently for Luca to return.

It was boring. He was bored. So _bored! _His mind went blank, and he totally zoned out. There wasn't even anything to think about that he hadn't already thought of.

Suddenly he heard a noise. Like a yawn! He quickly turned to face the bed and once again he found himself staring at the girl, only this time she was staring straight back!

"It's about time you woke up!" Natsume mentally kicked himself. He hadn't meant to sound so harsh.

She didn't respond. Maybe she couldn't see him?  
Natsume hurried to open the shades so that they could see each other clearly. The sun glared in their eyes, and both of them squinted so as not to go blind.

Tentatively opening his eyes again, Natsume saw that the girl was still closing her eyes, and he was shocked to see how pained she looked.

"No light! No light!" She screamed.

He took a step backwards. "Woah, calm down. Just open your eyes, you'll get used to it soon enough."

He walked over to her and held the blanket in front of her face.

"Now open your eyes."

Shuddering, she peeked through one of her eyes, then opened both of them when she saw that the light was dimmed because of the blanket.  
Natsume slowly lowered the blanket, allowing her to register the sudden light.

'_That's weird, she shouldn't have been so effected. It was bright, but not so bright that she'd flip out. Is she over sensitive?'_

Either way, she seemed fine now. Natsume knelt down beside the bed, a little awkwardly. What should he say?

"Are you hungry?"

The girl blinked up at him, as though she hadn't heard him properly. He sighed.

"Do you want to eat? Luca's gone right now getting some chicken noodle soup for you, but I can probably find something in the kitchen if you want."

She looked away. "N..no, I'm not hungry."

Natsume raised an eyebrow. "Don't be ridiculous. You haven't eaten in at least two days, and you're trying to tell me you're not hungry?"

No reply. Sighing, Natsume sat on the edge of the bed. His knees were starting to get uncomfortable. "Alright, you don't have to eat. But you at least have to answer me this one question."

The girl raised her head.

"What's your name?"

She froze. Natsume waited patiently.

"… I don't have a name."

The rom was silent for a few minutes, then Natsume spoke.

"So what you told the teacher was true. Why don't you have a name?"

"Because nobody ever gave me a name."

"What about your parents?"

"….."

Natsume stopped talking. She didn't want to talk about her parents.

"Do you want a name?"

"Maybe."

A few girls have been calling you 'Shizuka'. Do you want to be called that?"

"N…No! I don't like that!" The girl looked down. "I don't want to be called anything if all it does is say that I'm silent. Because Shizuka means silent, right?"

Natsume nodded, glad they were getting somewhere in the conversation. "Yeah. So I won't call you Shizuka. But we have to call you something."

Startled, the girl looked up and stared straight at Natsume. "Why? I don't need a name."

"Because a name is something just for you." A sudden voice came from the doorway.

Natsume smiled to himself. He knew that voice.

"Oy, Luca. What took so long?"

Luca grinned and sat on the edge of the bed. "Actually I got back a while ago, but I was listening to your conversation."

"Stupid jerk. She's obviously starving!"

Luca's face grew more serious. "What you guys are talking about is more serious than food right now." He turned to look at the girl, who was inching away from him. "I'm Luca, this moron's brother…. Sort of."

"Uh…Okay." A small voice came from the confused little girl.

"Sorry for the interruption by the way, but this is something you have to know. Everybody needs a name, even you."

"B..But nobody would call me by my name anyways, so why is it important?"

"A name is like….. When you receive a hug and a kiss from your mom. It's showing how much she loves you, and the same is when she gives you a name, only that gift lasts your entire life! Do you get it now?"

The girl pulled the covers closer. "It's not important to me. My mom never loved me enough to give me a name, so why should I want one? The girls who call me by a name only do that because otherwise it's awkward."

Natsume took over. "That's a nickname, not a name. That's why I said we need to give you a name. I don't know what your story is, but as a fellow human being, we love you, and we want to give you a name."

Seeing that she still didn't understand, Natsume continued.

"Your name is something unique, that you will own for the rest of your life. It's something that nobody can take from you, and you should treasure it. So I don't want to hear you say you don't want or need a name. Me and Luca, we love you as an individual. Well if you have a name, we can call you by that name and show you how much we care about you."

Tears formed in the little girls eyes, and she hid her face in her hands.

On an impulse, Luca grabbed her close and hugged her. "You don't need to hide your tears. You don't need to try and be strong anymore, because we'll protect you."

A sob came from the child in his arms, and he held her tighter.

After a while, Natsume stood up and walked over to them. Luca nodded.

"I guess I'll just leave you two in here for now. I'm gonna go eat, but you did say you weren't hungry." Natsume said with a smirk.

A head popped up. "I am hungry!"

Natsume turned away so she wouldn't see his smile. Who knew that just one little kid could have such a big impact on him.

"Let's go, then. Luca, you did get the soup, right?"

"Yup, it's on the counter."

The little girl's face brightened up at the mention of food, and she hopped off the bed in a hurry to eat.

Natsume let her leave the room before turning to Luca. "So she doesn't have a name, huh? And from her reaction when I said we would give her one, no one's ever said anything like that before."

"I should have guessed as much, considering the way she acts at school. She avoids everyone, and doesn't even flinch when they ignore her. Must be used to it," Luca said.

A head poked through the door way. "I don't know where the food is."

Natsume smiled.

* * *

Now comfortably seated on a chair, the girl looked like any other cheerful, innocent little kid. She gave a little bounce when Luca came over with a freshly microwaved bowl of chicken noodle soup. No sooner did he place it in front of her then she immediately started devouring it.

In between mouthfuls, she managed to splutter a thank you.

Luca shrugged. "No problem."

Natsume sat on the edge of the counter per usual, and was surprised to see a bag of oranges next to him.

"Hey Luca, what are these?"

"Oh, I picked those up at the store as well as the soup. I figured she might need something to go with the soup - Oh yeah! I totally forgot to offer them!"

Natsume rolled his eyes. "I'll do it I guess." Hopping off the counter he grabbed an orange from the bag and shoved it in front of the girl.

"Here."

She frowned. "What's that?"

Natsume widened his eyes. "It's just an orange!"

"Is it food?"

"I give up!" Natsume flopped on the floor. "She doesn't know the most basic things."

Luca sighed exasperatedly and snatched the orange from the collapsed Natsume. "Oh shut up. It's not like she's trying!"

He then proceeded to give the orange to the girl. "It's fruit. And it's good. Try it."

She took the orange and examined it carefully. "Uh, how do you eat it?"

Luca grabbed a knife from the silver ware drawer and sliced the peel on the orange. Setting the knife down, he peeled away the skin.

"You see how it's kind of in slices? You just eat those."

Delighted, she eagerly pulled away a piece and popped it into her mouth. A smile spread across her face.

15 minutes later the entire bag was gone.

Natsume and Luca stood in shock, their mouths gaping.

"I like it!"

Luca shook his head. "Er... Yeah. It looks like it. You kind of ate the whole bag…"

Suddenly realizing how rude that was, she blushed. "Sorry."

Natsume rolled his eyes. "Don't apologize, you just really like oranges."

Her face brightened up. "Oranges? That's what they're called?"

Luca corrected her. "Actually, they're more commonly called clementines. Or tangerines. But yeah, they're at least a type of oranges."

Natsume was silent for a few minutes, lost in thought as Luca and the little girl conversed about oranges.

"Mikan!"

"What?" Luca and the girl asked in unison.

"I said Mikan! Orange."

Catching on, Luca grinned. "Good idea!" Turning to look at the girl, who was bewildered, he smiled at her.  
"Mikan is a beautiful name for a girl. How about that? You seem to really enjoy eating oranges, so how about we call you Mikan?"

The girl was shocked. She had forgotten that they wanted to give her a name. "Mi.. Mikan?" Slowly a smile reached her lips, and she squealed with joy. "Mikan!"

Natsume and Luca glanced at each other. It looked like she liked it!

"Alright then, we'll call you Mikan." Luca told her."

Mikan stood up, and before he could react she hugged him tightly, tears slowly falling down her face.

"Thank you, Natsume."

Natsume placed a hand on her head. She was so little that she only reached his thigh. "I told you, didn't I? We care about you, and this is our way of showing you. Now when we call you, you'll know it's you we're calling. Because this name defines you."

Luca smirked. "In more ways then one."

Mikan glared daggers at him.

"What? I was just saying you like oranges! A lot. You _really _like oranges."

Still glaring, she huffed indignantly. "Oranges are yummy! So what if I like them?"

Natsume grinned evilly with a glint in his eyes. "Luca, I do believe we have some chicken noodle soup on the stove. Would you like some?"

Luca gagged and his face turned an unhealthy shade of green. "That's so funny I forgot how to laugh!"

Mikan was confused, but she didn't say anything. It was funny watching the two friends bicker with one another. It reminded her of _that _place. She laughed away the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes.

Natsume looked at her in surprise. "You're laughing? He was making fun of you! Go kill him!"

Forgetting her sadness, she jumped on Luca from behind and they both fell to the floor.

The rest of the day was spent in pure joy, as Mikan explored this strange yet wonderful feeling of happiness with her newfound brothers.

* * *

**Sooo, are you all satisfied? I'm sorry that I couldn't make a better surprise, but I answered the question! The girl is Mikan! And don't worry, I have stuff for the story that will make it interesting, in case you feel like this story has no more surprises.  
**

**Answer time! Yeah!**

**Mystery555: That's okay if you didn't review last chapter, knowing you read it is just as awesome, lol!**

**Pen Syle Vania: Thanks! I wrote another chapter, so here you go! **

**Ikumi2688: heehee, I figured you didn't think it would, I'm just weird. Lol, I'm glad you laughed, I laughed as I was writing it! Middle of the night, and I just start cracking up! I think I scared my siblings.**

**Freespirited309: I'm interested to see how this story progresses too ;) I'll let my mind go wild, and hopefully you'll like what I write. Thanks for the compliment!**

**Okay, I'm done. As always, please leave a ****review. :) Thanks for reading!**


	9. Innocent and Deadly

**Guess what? It's another chapter! I know it's early, so just in case you haven't even read my last chapter go read it.  
This chapter was super easy to write, and I'm so excited because this story is finally getting down to the action! I have most of this story planned out, just need details for each chapter, so writing should be smoother, which means quicker updates. :)**

**Enjoy! :)****  
**

* * *

The next week was light hearted, neither Luca nor Natsume daring to bring up the subject of Mikan's life. For now they would just get used to having her around. After all, it's not every day that you're left in charge of an alleged murdering child.

* * *

"Oy, Mikan." Mikan felt a hand shaking her non to gently.

"Wake up! How long do you plan on sleeping in?"

Grunting, Mikan rolled off the bed. Well, more like she was _pushed _out of bed. Stretching and sitting up, Mikan yawned, her cat-like teeth glinting in the early sunlight. Natsume frowned at the girl, who was sleepily standing up.

"You better get in the habit of getting up early again, because school starts tomorrow. This storms finally letting up, and there's no way the Headmaster will let us off more than he needs to."

Mikan nodded. "I know, he already sent someone over here to warn me."

Natsume couldn't hide his surprise. "You mean there was someone over here? When?"

"Late last night, after you and Luca went to bed."

"Not only is that suspiciously creepy, but that means he already knows you're staying here with us. Will he have a problem with that?"

Mikan gave a shrug. "Who knows, but I don't really care. He's not in charge of me, and I'll stay wherever I want. All he really cares about anyways is when I get to the school, so I'll just show up on time tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I need a change of clothes pronto."

Surprised at this sudden carefree attitude, Natsume didn't question her about the clothes. "I'll go see what old clothes I have, but you're already so tiny that it'll be difficult. Be right back."

Mikan smiled cheerfully. "Heehee, I don't mind if they're too big - All the better, really.

Natsume glanced at her again before leaving to get some clothes.

She was acting like this now, but…

He returned shortly with some old clothes of Luca's, since he hadn't lived here long enough to have anything that would fit her.  
She took the clothes and pushed him out the door so she could change.

* * *

In the kitchen, Luca was making eggs. Sort of. No need to go into detail, we already know about both of their cooking skills.

"We need to figure out what's going on."

Luca stopped massacring the eggs long enough to turn to Natsume, who was sitting on a chair for once.

"About what? Mikan, or the Headmaster?"

"Both."

Luca returned to his frying pan. "The only clue we have right now is that note. Other than that, we'd have to ask Mikan, and I personally don't want to do that. And she's been avoiding talking about anything anyways."

Nodding, Natsume sighed and laid his head on the table. "Almost forgot, she says some man from the academy dropped by last night. Told her something about getting to the school on time. I didn't get any details."

"Hm. Makes me mad that they can just show up without permission, but we don't really have a choice."Luca muttered.

"Anyways, it's pretty clear that the note said something about Mikan being _that girl_, but maybe there was something else in there. Anyways, that would explain Hisoka's reaction."Natsume continued.

Just then Mikan walked into the kitchen.

Natsume stifled a laugh, and Luca turned to see why. As soon as he did, he burst out laughing.

Mikan was wearing a gray tee shirt and black shorts. The shirt was okay besides being a little long, but the shorts reached her knees!

They were obviously too big for her, considering how tiny she was, and they were initially boys shorts anyways.

"Pfft. You look like a boy!" Luca teased her, still laughing a little.

Natsume was highly amused as well. It was obvious that Mikan wasn't used to doing her hair, and her messy bun ended up making her hair look short like a boys.

She stalked over to the counter and huffed. Luca shut up and continued cooking, but Natsume sat down right next to the frustrated Mikan.

"Sorry, it's all I could find. What happened to your other clothes, anyways?"

Mikan muttered something under her breath.

"You've got to wear them tomorrow, huh? So why were you wearing them all week?"

Now she was starting to turn red. "That idiotic, stupid guy from school saw me wearing them last night, and told me not to where them, because I need them tomorrow."

Natsume glanced at her, surprised. "Are they really that important that you wear them tomorrow?"

Mikan nodded, reluctantly. "Yeah, I got them from the Headmaster my first day at the school. 'Course I didn't want them, but he forced them on me. I don't know why he gave me new jeans, though. My missions went fine with my old— !" She hurriedly cut off her words, and jumped down from the chair.

"Uh, I forgot to brush my teeth! Gotta go!" She quickly ran out the door and slammed her bedroom door.

Natsume didn't say anything. _'You didn't mean to say that, did you.'_

Luca glanced over to Natsume. "Natsume, the eggs are done. If you want some, come and get them."

Natsume didn't reply, just stood up and put some on a plate.

Bringing it to the table, he slowly ate his food.

Silently Luca watched his friend. Did something happen just now? Was it his conversation with Mikan? It had seemed light hearted enough, but who knew.

* * *

** o0o Later that day o0o**

"Hurry up and shut the door before we freeze to death!"

Three snowmen sat in front of the fire, to frozen to shiver. Once the snow had melted, Natsume turned to face Luca, a black aura behind his head.

Luca sweat dropped. "Ehehehe, sorry…"

Natsume pounded Luca's head. "What do you mean 'sorry'? What kind of moron decides to check the weather in a snow storm!? You nearly killed us!"

Mikan didn't say anything, but Luca knew that the only reason for this was because she was saving up energy to tackle him.

"Come on, I only let in a little bit of snow! I just wanted to see how bad it was!" He dashed out of the family room and skidded into his bedroom, slamming the door closed.

Natsume banged on the door, using vile words to threaten Luca.  
Luca flinched as Natsume vividly described how he was going to kill him. Once he was done threatening, he started berating him.

"Thanks to you, the entire house is covered in water - Not to mention all our clothes are soaked! If you step out of that room you'll find out just how bad the weather is - you'll be boiling hot!"

Luca gulped and sat on his bed. "Who on earth decided to give that freak a fire alice," he muttered.

Mikan stood up rather stiffly and stomped into her room as well. She didn't have any other clothes to change into, so her best option was to huddle in a blanket. The fire could only do so much without burning your clothes off.

Shivering under her blanket, Mikan reflected on the past week. It had only been a few days, but it was by far the best week of her life. Natsume and Luca were miracles, they must have been sent from Heaven by God. They had their flaws as proven today, but they were perfect. She knew she could trust them, and so she put the little faith she had left in them. They genuinely cared about her, even she could see that, despite it being new to her.

A knock came from her door, and she called for the person to come in.  
Natsume entered and sat on her bed.

"Sorry about earlier, it's probably my fault he's so ignorant. Actually we're both ignorant of a lot of things." He grinned at her.  
_'Good thing she never saw that soup'_

Mikan shrugged absent-mindedly. "That's okay, at least your floors will be cleaned now."

Natsume grimaced. "Yeah, actually that's what I was just doing. Probably the first time since Mom and Dad left that they've been cleaned."

"Mom and Dad?" Mikan looked at him curiously.

Sighing, Natsume stood up. "It's a long story. They're not my birth parents, I'm not even adopted by them. I'm just a lot closer to them than my own parents. Luca's their son." Obviously not wanting to say anything else, he left the room, leaving Mikan to think about what he had said. Sometimes it was hard to remember she was just a child.

'_Closer to someone else's parents then his own?' _This was a new idea for her. _'Does this mean that I can get new parents?'_

She would have to think about that, but she was also curious as to what happened to Natsume's parents. It was clear that his real parents were still alive, as he was talking about them in a present tense. But if so, then why would he be closer to someone else's parents? It was to confusing to think about.

It reminded her of her own parents, and that was a topic she did her best to avoid at any cost.

* * *

** Next Day**

Mikan was up early. There was something she had to do today, and she would rather die than let the two boys see.  
She pulled on her freshly cleaned black hoody and jeans, and quickly wrote a note for when they woke up, leaving it on the counter.

It was true that the storm had let up, even calmer than yesterday, but it was still cold. The snow was blowing directly in her face, and she pulled her hood more tightly over her face. The school was a good 2 miles away, and she didn't have the luxury of being late today.

As she walked down the street, she couldn't help staring at the other houses. She was naturally curious about what kind of people lived in them. Having lived in those woods for most of her life, she rarely saw anyone, and there was only one person she had ever even talked to before meeting Natsume and Luca.

And she was on her way to see him now.

After arriving at the school, she immediately headed for the Headmaster's office. The hallways were empty - Nobody except her was crazy enough to be up at this hour - it wasn't even light out yet. Well, one other person was crazy enough.

She knocked on the door. A voice came from within.

"Enter."

She opened the door.

The Headmaster was sitting behind his desk, looking as stiff as ever.

Her hood was still up, so she pulled it back, revealing her pale eyes and black hair. The Headmaster visibly winced, considering it indecent to even be in the same room as her.

"I see you've grown rather fond of those two boys."

"….."

"Natsume Hyuuga and Luca Nogi, if I am not mistaken."

"….."

His voice grew harsh. "You've ventured into dangerous territory. Don't forget what will happen if you dare to disobey me. Any sign of rebellion, and those two will be taken, along with you-know-what."

Mikan was silent, but this was only to quell the anger growing inside of her. She had indeed ventured into dangerous territory, and that would have to stop, before she lost control of her rage. That was the one thing she had sworn never to do again, and if she had to put up with every one of the Headmaster's commands to follow that vow, then so be it.

"You know your mission, completing the one you failed last time. Honestly, no one would guess that a freak like you could get sick - You're hardly even human! Anyways, enough chatting. Class starts in three hours, be back by then. I won't have you attracting attention by arriving late."

Mikan winced at his words, but was unable to respond, lest her voice betray her. Instead, she wordlessly pulled her hood back on and left the room.

The Headmaster leaned back in his chair. He was so close to achieving his goal, he could almost see it now. The only thing standing in his was that monster, yet she played the biggest part in his plans. Tch, what a nuisance.

* * *

Mikan stood onto of a hill, watching the sunrise. She was used to the cold by now, and she enjoyed feeling her hair whip around in the wind.

It was already 6:00 am, an hour since she had left the school. An hour wasted looking for an evasive rogue alice.

Her job was to find a man with the ice alice. She hadn't needed to be told that he mustn't be left alive. All her missions were like that, and she hated it. But to protect a certain something and two certain young men, there wasn't any other choice. Besides, she had grown up doing this. She was getting used to it, and that's what frightened her.

Mikan slipped her hood back on when the sun had fully risen. She was especially sensitive to light, all thanks to _him_. Sighing, she continued her search for the man.

* * *

Another hour had passed before she finally found him lurking around at the edge of a small town. He was a wanted criminal, but there was another reason the Headmaster needed him dead. He had top secret information on the Academy that was crucial to it's safety. Information on all it's defenses, since he had been a former guard there.

She slid into the shadows of an alley, still and silent as she studied his every move. He had long brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, and a stubbly beard. This time her assignment was an actual criminal, so she wasn't at all sorry when she stepped into the light.

Ayame was extremely satisfied with his latest find. After killing a seemingly poor family out of spite, he had discovered a hidden wealth inside a cigar box, and immediately claimed it for his own. He was currently going through it, counting how many yen he now possessed.

Suddenly a sound came from behind him, and he swiftly spun around, startled to see that it was just… a…. little… girl…

"-You!" He managed to choke out.

A young girl stood before him, standing half way out of the shadows. Her eyes pale blue, staring at him with a creepily serious look. Her black hair swirling in the wind, dancing to a deadly song.

As soon as he caught a glimpse of her, Mikan wasted no time in dispatching him. A simple flick of her hand and he was gone, nothing to be seen except for a pile of ashes. As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

A frightened child was hiding behind a wall, frightened to the point of fainting. But she stayed awake, for were she to fall to the ground then surely that demon would slay her. She remained hidden after the horrifying monstrosity had disappeared, tightly shutting her eyes, but the image remained imprinted in her mind, never to be forgotten. The look on that man's face when he saw the creature, and the sound of his bones crackling and turning to dust. It had been quick, but she had glimpsed what looked like black fire. Odd. Most stories of her had been about white flames. But there was no mistaking who it was.

As soon as she could move her body, the girl ran home as fast as she could, and yet another story of the demon child was spread throughout the land.

* * *

Mikan quietly slipped into the classroom. It was still a little early for class to be starting, but a few of her class mates had arrived early.

Including Natsume and Luca. She gulped, afraid to find out what their reaction to her morning absence would be.

Natsume was clearly furious. He waved her over, a clear sign that he was furious, because if he was only a little mad then he would be yelling at her.

"Ah, Mikan. Just who I was talking about. Come on, sit down."

Mikan gulped and sat down next to him. "..Hi Natsume…"

"It seems you decided to leave early today. Isn't that right?"

"….."

"It would also seem as though you didn't want to talk about it. Seeing how as you left a FLIPPIN NOTE! ARE YOU CRAZY! ALL YOU SAID IS THAT YOU HAD AN ERRAND TO RUN!"

The other students started staring, and Natsume dropped his voice to a lower level. "Honestly, how stupid do you think we are? You're what, ten years old? I doubt you have any money, and you certainly don't need to buy anything, seeing how as you're currently living with us! Couldn't you have at least told us the truth?"

Mikan looked down. It was bad enough that she couldn't tell them the truth, but she couldn't even tell them why!

"In a sense, I really did run an errand."

Natsume raised an eyebrow. "….A really long one…."

Luca raised an eyebrow. "…. It was complicated…." She started sweating.

"Please don't ask about it," Mikan pleaded.

They obviously weren't satisfied with her answers, but they couldn't argue with that face. She was desperate to keep it a secret, and they had to respect that.

"I'll let it go for now, but trust me kid, you're gonna' tell me everything one day!"

Luca didn't say anything, but he nodded in agreement with Natsume.

Mikan gave a sigh of relief. In all honesty, she was rather exhausted from her earlier mission, spending more than two hours in pursuit of that stupid man. She wished she could have caught him that first time a few weeks ago, but she was unfortunate enough to get sick just as she was about to kill him. That's why he was so shocked to see her again.

She herself was surprised that he saw her again. Nobody ever saw her twice if she was sent to kill them. But his luck hadn't lasted long.

Shaking her head, Mikan concentrated on the class that was now in session. It was never a good idea to dwell on these thoughts, they only caused her to hate herself even more.

Hisoka sensei ignored the fact that Mikan was only half paying attention to his class. It wouldn't do any good to send her to the Headmasters office, and if he tried reprimanding her himself she would just ignore him. She ignored everyone.

But today… Today was different.

The whole class had been utterly shocked to see her sitting right next to his top students, Natsume Hyuuga and Luca Nogi. Girls practically cried, jealous that she was sitting next to their idols, and those who weren't their fan girls were just plain upset. After a week or so of her arrival, they had caught onto the fact that they shouldn't get friendly with her. Teachers gave her dirty looks or even looked scared, she kept going to the Headmasters office, and she always came to class with un aided wounds. Four reason why nobody was happy today.

He had his own reasons for hating her, but even he wouldn't dare do what they were doing today.  
One girl in particular was the worst. Akemi, the leader of the 'Natsume and Luca' fan club.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!" A cup of water was 'accidentally' spilled all over Mikan, who surprisingly enough acted as though it had never happened  
Akemi frowned. This wasn't working. This stupid little brat was acting all high and mighty, making her appear immature. How foolish.  
She smiled to herself, thinking of a plan. It was risky, but it just might work.

Besides her, others were clearly going out of their way to cause trouble for Mikan, or at least ignore her more than usual.

Hisoka watched them from the sidelines.

That thing which dared act as a human, living a life of murder and destruction. He wasn't scared of her anymore, he had gotten over that after about a week of peace, no attacks or anything. Instead he was filled with contempt and loathing. It really was disgusting, how she could forget him just like that. From the moment he saw her enter the classroom, he had known who she was. How could he possibly forget? She had taken away everything from him, and acted as though it had never happened! But for now he would pretend he had never met her.

Act as if he didn't want to kill her with his bare hands.

* * *

**Mwahahahaha! **

**Sorry, I'm just so in love with what I have planned for this story.**

**How'd you like it? Are you glad I'm getting further into the real story? I sure hope so, because from now on there should be more of that.  
I decided that I can't just hide all the mystery's, at least a few need to be shared with you all :P**

**Mystery555's question about wether this is a NxM fan fiction: **

******This _is _a NxM story. I am indeed aware that people get married with large age gaps, my friend's parents are like that. So put your anxious minds at peace, but be aware that this has more to it than just Natsume and Mikan getting married. This part of the story in particular is complicatedly amazing, and I'm squealing cuz I'm so excited to write it!**

**Leave a comment, or just enjoy this story silently. I'm just happy happy happy! Nothing can get me down! XD**


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